System and method for supporting data driving a software process using objects of arbitrary data types

摘要

The present invention provides a method for supporting data driving a software process. The method comprises receiving, from a user, input of a class of an object of a non-primitive data type; and providing to the user a description of the collection of attributes necessary to construct an instance of the object, based only on the class of the object. The step of receiving the class of the object is free of receiving a pre-existing instance of the data type. In further related embodiments, the method further comprises receiving, in a single user step, user input of defining attribute data necessary to create the instance of the object and set it into a desired state; and creating and initializing the instance of the object using the defining attribute data; wherein the defining attribute data does not include a pre-existing instance of the data type.